Former India selector Saba Karim has opined that Suryakumar Yadav to bat at No. 4 while adding that the Mumbai Indians star batter is a multi-dimensional cricketer who can be used as a floater in India’s T20I line-up for the Asia Cup. The Asia Cup T20 tournament will be played in the UAE from August 27 to September 11. Rohit Sharma is leading a 15-member Indian squad at the event, with KL Rahul as his deputy. India will be commencing its campaign in Asia Cup against Pakistan on August 28.
Suryakumar has waited pretty to wait for his India debut but his consistent starring performances in IPL and India A tours forced the selectors to pick him for the England T20Is at home in March 2021. Twenty-three matches into his T20I career, Yadav now standing at No.2 in the ICC T20 Batter Rankings, behind Pakistan skipper Babar Azam, and has a strike rate of 175.45 which is the best for any player to bat as many times as he in T20I history.
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After that, there was no looking back for Suryakumar Yadav as he performed quite consistently which helped him to rise up to second in the ICC Rankings for T20 batters, just a few points behind Babar Azam.
Talking about Suryakumar Yadav, during a chat with SPORTS18, Saba Karim said, “Suryakumar Yadav is such a multi-dimensional player, I can keep him as a floater. I can push him up the order, if my two openers bat says till the 7th-8th over, I can push in SKY then.”
He further added, “Or in case it is required, I can also push him down the order because he’s such a player who can give me the value at whatever number he bats and I’m looking at my 4-5-6 as floaters.”
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Saba Karim expressed similar thoughts about Rishabh Pant as well, saying, “I will in fact keep Rishabh Pant very handy. Because if I feel that I need to push in a left-hander at the top of the order, I can do that as well. But as of now my fixed 3 positions at the top would be Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, and Virat Kohli.”
